Rental Pokémon are any Pokémon which a Trainer does not formally own and uses temporarily for a battle or competition. Using a rental Pokémon does not count as capturing a Pokémon for filling up a Pokédex. They are most commonly used to test a Trainer's ability with using any Pokémon, even those they did not train and raise themselves.

In the games

Pokémon Stadium was the first game to make use of rental Pokémon. In this game, the different tournament levels have one of every Pokémon that can enter the tournament available for rental. Each Pokémon has a pre-determined move set for each tournament level. This provides the advantage of making it easier to compete in the different tournaments and to add statues of all Pokémon from the Generation I Pokédex to the Hall of Fame.

Unlike their Stadium predecessors, these two games do not allow rental Pokémon for the competitions inside the games. However, they still have semi-random rental Pokémon teams available in their Battle Now modes.

In the Battle Frontier, the Battle Factory is based around rental Pokémon. The player chooses a team of three out of six random rental Pokémon. Noland and Thorton, the Frontier Brains for the Battle Factories, also battle using random teams of rental Pokémon.

Like the Stadium games, rental Pokémon are available. However, not all kinds of Pokémon are available to rent at a time. Rental Passes are also the only kind of Battle Pass available for use at the Gateway Colosseum. Once a Rental Pass is earned, its Pokémon can be swapped between Rental Passes to build a team. Later on players can earn the ability to trade rental Pokémon with their opponents in Gateway Colosseum, and keep them after winning.